Multimedia content production and distribution operations typically include video encoding. Video encoding processes are typically very data and computationally intensive. As a result, video encoding processes can be very time consuming. For example, it may take several tens-of hours for a software encoder to encode a high-quality high definition movie. Since quality and speed of video encoding processes are significant factors for successful multimedia content production and distribution pipelines, systems and techniques to increase the speed at which high quality video content can be encoded would be useful.